The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Actinidia plant, botanically known as Actinidia chinensis Pl. of the Actinidiaceae family, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘HFR18’.
The new Actinidia cultivar is a product of a controlled breeding and pollination program conducted by the inventor in Xia Yuan village, Shifang County, Sichuan Province, China. The objective of the breeding and pollination program was to develop a new Actinidia cultivar with redder fruit flesh color.
The new Actinidia cultivar originated from a controlled cross made by the inventor in April 2000 in Xia yuan village, Shifang County, Sichuan Province, China. The female or seed parent is the Actinidia chinensis Pl. cultivar ‘Hongyang’ (Registered; PVR in multiple regions). The male or pollen parent is the Actinidia chinensis Pl. cultivar ‘SF0612M’ (unpatented.)
Seeds were sown in February 2001 and 550 seedlings were then planted out in a field in a kiwifruit research station in Shifang county, Sichuan Province, China in February 2002. The seedlings first fruited in April 2005. A total of 2 female seedlings were propagated by graft in October 2007. The new Actinidia cultivar was selected by the inventor in a controlled environment in 2009 in Shifang county, Sichuan Province, China.
Asexual reproduction of the new Actinidia cultivar by grafting on rootstocks of Actinidia deliciosa C. F Liang was first performed in April 2010 in a kiwifruit research station in Shifang County, Sichuan Province, China and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new cultivar reproduces true to type.